An Etawah court convicted 15 policemen and sentenced them rigorous life imprisonment for killing a physically challenged youth in a fake encounter way back in 1992, reports Haidar Naqvi.

In a landmark decision, an Etawah court convicted 15 policemen and sentenced them rigorous life imprisonment for killing a physically challenged youth in a fake encounter way back in 1992.

The policemen include three sub-inspectors, one of them retired, three constables of civil police and nine jawans of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). Special Judge (essential commodities act) RC Sharma has slapped a fine of 5000 each on personnel from civil police and 1000 each on PAC jawans.

After the verdict was pronounced, the relatives of policemen went berserk and assaulted relatives of victims thanking the Almighty joyously, on court campus. One person Ashok Sharma was grievously injured in the attack and the police have taken several persons into custody.

Those convicted by the court are Girwar Giri, sub-inspectors Saligram Yadav, Jai Narayan Singh, constables Brijesh Kumar Yadav, Satosh Kumar and constable-driver Brij Mohan and 10 PAC jawans. One of the PAC jawan died in course of trial and sub-inspector Saligram Yadav retired from the police force and now is 67 years of age.

They had gunned down 22-year-old Raj Narayan Tewari on January 28, 1992 at outskirts of Dadra, a village nestled on banks of Chambal river. Tewari’s brother Ram Kumar Pandit was a dacoit and the Madhya Pradesh government had announced a cash reward of 50,000 on his head.

The police team was headed by then station officer Chakar Nagar, Giriwar Giri who claimed to have had acted on specific information. But the police story boomranged when two eye witnesses came forth and spilled the beans. Even in the court they stood by their account and helped the prosecution to seal the fate of the policemen.

“The witness Vijay Narayan and Seeta Ram had seen the policemen shooting Raj Narayan dead and later dumping his body in the Chambal river,” said public prosecutor Vijay Narayan Singh Sengar. “The body was never found and the testimonies of two witness played the pivotal role in the decision. The findings of CD-CID inquiry were equally significant,” Sengar told HT.

The CB-CID inquiry was ordered a year after and the investigating officer Santosh Kumar Awasthi concluded the encounter as fake and recommended registration of murder and concealment of victim’s body under section 302 and 201. During the trial, the police did not produce the general diary that contains day-to-day details about policemen’s deed. And this was presumed as an act of concealment of evidence by the court.